1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to transportation of vehicles, and more particularly to a bicycle mounting adapter for fitting a bicycle on a mounting.
2. Description of Related Art
Forks in bicycles may be designed to work with a conventional wheel axle or may be designed to work with a quick-release assembly. Since a quick-release assembly is usually diametrically greater than a conventional wheel axle, forks designed for the different purposes usually have different specifications.
Many modern cars are atop equipped with a bicycle holder, which has a transverse rod for connection and other associated components. At each of the two ends of the transverse rod there is an externally threaded segment for mating a nut, on which an attachment is installed to hold a bicycle at its fork for convenient vehicular transportation of the bicycle to a destination.
An existing attachment, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,036,069, has a tubular cross member and two side members. The cross member contains therein a fastening means, which is partially exposed outside the cross member for holding a bicycle's fork. Each of the side members is vertically connected to one end of the cross member, with their free ends forming a U-shaped notch for receiving the threaded segments of the transverse rod as described previously. However, since the side members and the cross member are soldered together, the joints therebetween tend to rust, be corroded or break, leading to not only poor appearance but also structural defects. Besides, assembling of the bicycle holder requires repeated installation and tightening of nuts, and is very awkward.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,757,914 B2 also discloses amounting for a bicycle's fork to be attached thereto directly. Such a mounting incorporates therein a quick-release assembly, so that a bicycle's fork can conveniently sit in the mounting. Nevertheless, such a mounting with integrated quick-release assembly is available in a single specification that is not compatible to bicycles using a conventional wheel axle. On the contrary, attempts to fit a bicycle fork compatible to a quick-release assembly on a transverse rod (indicated by the numeral 12) as one described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,036,069 would fail. Hence, there is a need for a solution that adapts a mounting to bicycle forks of different specifications.